Case File: FBI

by The Gordons

By the authors of the THAT DARN CAT series (of Walt Disney movie fame), the best of their acclaimed and bestselling FBI series, starring agent John Ripley. Mr. Gorden was an FBI counterintelligence agent during WWII. Mildren Nixon Gordon and Gordon Gordon, born 1905 and 1906 respectively, began their careers as journalists and turned to writing thrillers. One of their characters, John Ripley, is an FBI agent. The first Ripley book was FBI Story, 1950. It was dedicated to J Edgard Hoover and reflected an admiring view of the agency; throughout the Gordons' work, operatives are shown to be tough, able, and honest, ready to sacrifice themselves for others. The four other Ripley novels appeared sporadically between 1954 and 1973. The Gordons also wrote non-series novels including Power Play 1966 in which the head of the FBI retires and there is a battle over the succession. The couple also collaborated on a popular subgenre of mysteries about cats. The first, Undercover Cat 1963 was made into the popular Walt Disney movie That Darn Cat! in 1965. Much like Rinehart and Eberhart, the Gordons turned the refinements of thirties writing-- its social mulieu, the amateur status the sleuth and the controlled element of romance-- into matter for psychological suspense fiction.

143 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published January 1, 1954

About the author

The Gordons is the pen name of the writing duo consisting of Gordon Gordon (12 March 1906 - 14 March 2002) and his wife Mildred Gordon (née Nixon, 24 June 1912 - 3 February 1979).

Probably best known for the novel that the Disney movie That Darn Cat , starring Hayley Mills, was based upon.

Gordon Gordon studied with Mildred Nixon at the University of Arizona and married her in 1932. After graduation, Gordon got a job on the editorial board of the daily newspaper Tucson Citizen. In 1935 he moved to the editorial office of the film company 20th Century Fox and remained there until 1942. From there he was hired by the Homeland Security Agency and Gordon worked in counterintelligence until the end of the war.

Mildred Nixon had studied pedagogy and worked as a teacher for some time after her studies. After her marriage, she began working for the United Press news agency. She also served as editor of Arizona Highways magazine for a time .

Gordon and Mildred Gordon's first literary attempts date back to their student days. After the first successful publications, their works appeared almost exclusively as a collaborative effort.

After Mildred Gordon died in 1979, Gordon Gordon remarried on March 16, 1980, to Mary Dorr.

Reviews

[Joe Nicholl · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thoroughly enjoyable read of fifties crime-fiction-police (in this case the FBI)-procedure-thriller-paperback Case File: FBI (1953) by the husband & wife team The Gordons (authors of That Darn Cat! :-)). While investigating an extortion case Special Agent Rip's partner is murdered...this leads Agent Rip on a trail of plot's, sub-plots, and a who-done-it to the very end. Expertly written with perfect prose it's a shame books like this ever go out-of-print. Worth searching out...I'm going to find more books by The Gordon's....5.0 outta 5.0....-Was made into the film Down Three Dark Streets (1954) starring Broderick Crawford...--The next Noir-vember 2024 book I'm going to read is Birdman by Mo Hayder,,,

[Ronald Dunn]

Great story with several "plots" intertwined. Read this multiple times growing up in the early 1960's, my mother owned the book.. a mystery buff who owned a collection of classics.